This post is co-written by Anne Guha, who was an intern with the Law Library’s Public Services Division this spring and is now working in Public Services, and Barbara Bavis, legal reference specialist. Our patrons at the Law Library of Congress frequently ask us for assistance in investigating the origins and statutory authority of federal …
This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that the President “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur… ” An early attempt by the …
This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. It is no wonder that we get a large number of questions about landlord-tenant law at the Law Library of Congress, in light of the fact that residential leasing, and the rights and obligations that stem from such agreements, is a pressing legal …
Periodically, we hear about news stories in which an attorney, a party in a legal case, or even a courtroom spectator, find themselves in hot water for not meeting certain courtroom attendance standards. Apart from avoiding the wrath of judges, appearance can also apparently have an an effect on the outcome of a trial. In …
This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. Everyone has a favorite lawyer joke. Robert encountered his favorite in the waiting room of a law office. Sitting on a table was a book titled, “Lawyer’s Book of Ethics.” It was blank. Notwithstanding this perception, the reality is that law is …
This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. In Part Two of our Family Law Beginner’s Guide, we are shifting our focus to what the law says about children’s roles in the family—focusing on their custody and care. Below, please find information and resources for legal researchers regarding child custody, …
This post was co-authored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, Legal Reference Specialists. We receive a wide array of questions here at the Law Library of Congress—from detailed foreign legal research, to tracing U.S. federal legislation, and everything in between—but one area of legal research on which we consistently receive requests for assistance is the …
Any given provision in the current U.S. Code may be the product of multiple acts passed over a long period of time. So, how do you unpack the provision and discover the different acts that gave rise to a particular section of the Code? Tracing legislation from the Code back to the bills, public laws, and Statutes at Large that created it …